Background
Most modern industrial production processes produce wastewater, which need to be treated according to the final discharge possibilities. Therefore, industrial wastewater treatment poses a double challenge:
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Discharge of industrial wastewater to the environment or to municipal collection systems requires industry-specific treatment technologies, in order to minimize the environmental impact of problematic industrial residues on the receiving system. These discharge requirements are becoming more stringent, as the detrimental impact of more and more production by-products become evident.
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In many cases, correct treatment processes can enable in-plant reuse of the treated effluent, thereby reducing production costs and optimizing plant processes.
In addition, water-intensive industries (such as pulp and paper, food processing, textile, etc.) are often dependent on wastewater treatment capacities for the expansion of production; in other words, the wastewater treatment system may be a bottleneck limiting production expansion.
The AGAR® process, offering the capability for treatment of a wide range of industrial wastewaters, in a flexible system requiring a small footprint with simple expansion capabilities, is therefore an extremely attractive option for industrial wastewater treatment.
Applications
The AGAR® process can treat biologically-degradable industrial wastewater in a number of process configurations, as detailed below. The process can be designed as a stand-alone sole treatment process, can be installed together with physico-chemical treatment units (before or after the AGAR® unit), or can be retrofitted into a biological treatment unit in order to allow higher loading rates and/or lower effluent pollutant concentrations.
The two basic configurations applied in industrial wastewater treatment are:
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Roughing Filter (RF) (also called: Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor - MBBR) configuration: In this configuration, the wastewater is treated only with Biomass carriers, or in other words, there is no suspended biomass (such as the activated sludge Mixed Liquor) involved. As a result, the process configuration can be extremely simple –a once-through flow with no recycles, meant for high-rate carbonaceous BOD removal, followed by a solids removal mechanism (such as a clarifier, DAF unit, etc,). In this configuration there is no need for RAS recycle from the clarifiers, and solids handling units are much smaller and more economical than conventional AS units.
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Fixed Film Activated Sludge Treatment (FFAST) configuration: In this configuration, a roughing filter (see previous paragraph) is added before a conventional activated sludge system, or any existing biological treatment system (RBC, TF, etc.). The roughing filter serves to greatly reduce dissolved pollutant (BOD) concentrations, thereby allowing a smaller downstream unit to achieve greater treatment goals, or conversely, allows greater loads and flows to be treated by the existing system.
Benefits
Introducing the AGAR® process to your industrial wastewater treatment needs offers the following benefits:
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Minimal reactor volume required for retrofits. In tight locations, where proximity to existing neighborhoods or other space limitations exist, the AGAR® process offers one of the only methods for significantly increasing plant treatment capacity (both wastewater flows and organic loads), thereby allowing increase in production, with very little enlargement of the existing biological system.
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Implementation together with physico-chemical treatment units. Many industries have physico-chemical treatment units as their only wastewater treatment system. Adding the AGAR® process in-line with the existing physico-chemical units allows significant improvement in effluent quality, without significantly increasing the size of the entire treatment unit.
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Future implementation: Once the (minimal) infrastructure constructions required for the AGAR® process are complete, onr of the main parameters defining treatment capacity is the volume of Biomass Carriers inside the basins. Carriers can be added on demand, and within hours, the plant capacity is expanded proportionally. This allows both timely adaptation to changing requirements (such as seasonal fluctuations in wastewater quantities), and Just In Time expenditure, so that investment in the upgrade is done only when needed, not years ahead of time.
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| Valdivia, Chile |
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| Tauste, Spain |
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| Europaper, Italy |
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